West Ham United U18s 1-3 Southampton U18s
U18 Premier League South
West Ham United U18s were defeated by a more clinical Southampton U18s side at Little Heath on Saturday morning.
Kevin Keen’s youth team once again impressed in spells but lacked the same cutting edge in front of goal as their now-joint-top visitors, slipping to a 3-1 defeat.
The result leaves the Hammers on three points and in ninth place after three games played.
Encouraged by a strong display in an unlucky 2-1 loss at Crystal Palace the previous week, lead coach Keen named an unchanged starting eleven for the third U18 Premier League South game in a row.
Fill-in forward Sonny Perkins – playing up front in the place of the injured Divin Mubama – was the man to have the first clear chance after 12 minutes, collecting George Earthy’s pass and muscling his way past Jeremi Rodrigues before seeing a low strike deflected away by visiting goalkeeper Eddie Beach.
Southampton winger Fedel Ross-Lang was next to go close in the game after 28 minutes, finding space inside the West Ham area before striking low across goal – but missing the far post.
It was to prove a warning sign as moments later, when captain Michael Forbes was unable to head clear a long ball forward, Southampton’s Tyler Dibling improvised an acrobatic overhead kick which crept below the onrushing Jacob Knightbridge.
Perkins went close again shortly by half-time only to be denied by Beech’s feet from a tight angle, before U16 midfielder Lewis Orford forced the Southampton ‘stopper into a sprawling save with a well-hit half-volley.
A half full of chances saw Knightbridge produce an excellent save of West Ham’s own, springing to his right to keep out Jem Hewlett’s low drive.
West Ham dominated the early stages of the second half, Junior Robinson seeing his low strike saved by Beech when the goalkeeper initially failed to deal with a ball into the box.
Perkins then fizzed a drive narrowly past the far post, but the Hammers would claim the equaliser their general play had merited.
Left-back Regan Clayton initially appeared to have lost the ball on the overlap, but sprung to his feet to win it back and lay off for U16s midfielder Ollie Scarles. The England youth international whipped in a delightful cross for unmarked first-year scholar Gideon Kodua – within seconds of coming on as a substitute – to head home his first U18s goal from close range.
But then the match turned suddenly against West Ham, Hewlett rising highest from a corner four minutes later to restore Southampton’s advantage.
Two minutes later, a long ball over the top caught the home defence flat-footed, Dominic Ballard audaciously chipping Knightbridge to put Southampton in a commanding position with 20 minutes remaining.
West Ham enjoyed further pressure but, for a second week in a row, will feel disappointed to have played as well as they did without picking up at least a point for their efforts.
We’ve created chances where we should do better, and conceded goals we should have done better with as well, so there are lots of things for the lads to work on
Kevin Keen
“The result’s really disappointing, but I can’t fault the lads’ effort,” Keen told whufc.com. “I thought Southampton were a good team and played some attractive football, but all the statistics from the game point to us probably being the better team.
“Unfortunately, that’s not what it comes down to, and Mark [Phillips], Gerard [Prenderville] and I need to look into that and address both penalty boxes.
“There are lots of positives to take away. It was similar against Crystal Palace last week, when we lost but were the better team, and we need to try and turn that around.
“The fact that we’ve not really had a striker in the team is maybe part of the reason, but at the same time we’ve created chances where we should do better, and conceded goals we should have done better with as well, so there are lots of things for the lads to work on.”
The lead coach rued the nature – and timing – of Southampton’s second goal in particular.
He continued: “It was disappointing, after we equalised, that they scored again so quickly. We’d dominated the second half and conceding from a corner is probably the moment the game changed.
“There were still some really good performances. I thought Archie Woods was outstanding in midfield, really giving it a go, and we also started with two U16s for the third game in a row. Ollie Scarles created the goal for Gideon Kodua – his first youth-team goal – which was fantastic.”
Having reached the first break in fixtures, Keen took time to reflect on his team’s opening three league results of the season, which have yielded three points out of nine.
Keen said: “Points-wise, it’s been disappointing, but I think we’ve done pretty well in games.
“We just need to make sure, in both boxes, we’re a bit better because performance-wise, in all three games, we’ve been at least the equal of the opposition.”
West Ham United: Knightbridge; Robinson, Tarima (Falase 74), Casey, Forbes (c), Clayton, Scarles, Woods, Orford (Evans 82), Earthy (Kodua 64), Perkins
Subs: Terry, Coddington
Goal: Kodua 64